Monthly Archives: November 2014

On Tuesday, November 4th , the fight for a living wage won a number of resounding victories nationwide. In Massachusetts, residents of Boston’s 10th Suffolk district voted ‘yes’ on Question 5, an advisory question supporting a $15 an hour minimum wage. With a 63% majority, working people have voted to take back the city they can no longer afford. With Boston’s cost of living on a constant and steep incline, the city’s $8 an hour minimum wage is becoming less and less livable – and Tuesday’s victory proves that working people have had enough.

15 Now spent the past few months in the 10th Suffolk district’s West Roxbury neighborhood rallying support for not only the upcoming advisory question, but for the fair treatment of workers statewide. 15 Now activists went door-to-door discussing the implications of an increased minimum wage with West Roxbury residents. We held speak outs and public meetings, and worked to dispel myths about the negative repercussions of a wage increase. Our consistent, and tireless work paid off when Question 5 was passed by an overwhelming majority.

The passage of this advisory question will serve as an essential moment for working people in Boston. The city’s cost of living has increased since we began campaigning for Question 5, making a higher minimum wage more essential than ever. Residents of West Roxbury’s call for a $15 an hour minimum wage will serve as a rallying cry citywide that working people deserve more from their employers and from their city. The working people of Boston deserve better than the poverty wages being leveled against them, and we hope that the momentum created by Question 5’s passage will inspire workers throughout the city.

The victory in Boston this Tuesday serves as evidence that when working people mobilize, motivate, and support one another – legitimate, systemic change can be made. The residents of the 10th Suffolk district have unified to demand fair, equal treatment from their legislators and their employers. This victory, in combination with the minimum wage victories in 17 states and in particular San Francisco and Oakland passing $15serve as incredible proof that working people are fighting back, taking back their cities, and demanding change. Continue to support 15 Now and we can take these successes nationwide.

In November 2013 in SeaTac, a suburb of Seattle, a majority of voters passed Proposition 1 establishing a minimum wage of $15/hour for airport related workers. Alaska Airlines and other corporations have strongly resisted implementing the democratic decision of the voters. Socialist Alternative Seattle Councilmember Kshama Sawant issued this statement after she was arrested yesterday defending SeaTac airport workers’ right to a $15/hour minimum wage.

“It was the courage of SeaTac workers and their victory at the ballot that made $15/hour possible in Seattle. I’m proud to stand with them today against Alaska Airlines’ attempted robbery. First, Alaska Airlines said the City of SeaTac doesn’t have the right to enforce $15/hour for airport workers; only the Port does. Now Alaska Airlines is leading the charge on a federal lawsuit claiming the Port has no authority to raise wages. Which is it? What’s clear is they’d rather spend millions trying to overturn democracy than pay low-wage workers what they’ve earned.”

“As she was led away in cuffs, I asked Councilwoman Sawant what the mayor was going to say about this. “Why don’t you ask him!” she laughed.” / “As she was led away in cuffs, I asked Councilwoman Sawant what the mayor was going to say about this. “Why don’t you ask him!” she laughed.” @BrandiKruse

“@cmkshama just got out of jail, told me with what airlines are doing, they should be the ones behind bars.” @NatashaKIRO7

Seattle Mayor Ed Murray’s first order of business when taking office was to sign an executive order to raise the minimum wage of city workers to $15 an hour. However, the Mayor’s city budget did not set aside any money for the raise – rendering his executive order empty.

Under pressure from 15 Now, Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant, and labor and community allies the Seattle City Council voted to fund the raise! This represents a huge victory for the 700 city workers that made under $15 an hour.

By Ellis E. Conklin Fri., Nov 14 2014 at 01:01PM

In passing a $4 billion budget for Seattle today by a 9-0 vote, the Council’s Budget Committee also unanimously approved an amendment by Councilmember Kshama Sawant, co-sponsored by Councilmember Mike O’Brien, to set aside $1.6 million over the next two years to ensure that all city workers receive a minimum of $15 per hour beginning April 1, 2015.

The Sawant amendment made good on a promise made in January by newly elected Mayor Ed Murray to bring all city workers to $15 per hour by executive order. City unions and others, including Sawant, had been urging the city in recent months to follow through on that promise. The Mayor’s proposed 2015 budget had not included funding to raise the wages of the city’s lowest paid employees to $15 per hour.

“Today we were able to finally deliver on Mayor Murray’s unfulfilled January promise,” said Sawant, whose amendment was strongly supported by the Coalition of City Union and a broad alliance of labor and community groups.

In outlining his 2015-2016 proposed city budget on Sept. 22, Murray altered course from his January declaration by recommending that the salary boost be phased in. He called for upping the wages of the lowest paid city workers to $11 in 2015, then to $13 in 2016, and finally, in 2017, granting them the full $15-an-hour minimum wage.

The Council chose a more immediate route, deciding that all city employees should be making $15 by next April, when the law takes effect.

“This was certainly not intended to be a rebuff to the Mayor,” O’Brien told Seattle Weekly. “The Mayor did a great job on getting the minimum wage law passed, but if we can get faster in getting it implemented, then that’s great. So I am excited about this budget.”

There an estimated 500 to 700 city workers affected, many of them, according one city workers’ union, earning $12.97 an hour. These include recreation attendants for Seattle Parks and Recreation, groundskeepers at city-run golf courses, parks-maintenance workers, and dining-room attendants at Seattle Center.

Portland’s park workers organized under Laborers’ Local 483 in 2013. Local 483 has been a strong advocate for a $15 minimum wage in the Portland area. This past year Local 483 also organized Oregon Zoo workers to demand a $15 minimum wage as part of their first contract negotiations. Although the zoo workers did not win that particular demand, Laborers’ Local 483 did not give up. They continued to organize workers around the demand for $15. Now, thanks to the courage of the parks workers and the steadfast organizing efforts of Local 483, Portland has won it’s first victory in the Fight for $15.

With these contract victory the City of Portland has recognized that a living wage, and thus an appropriate starting wage for our city, is at least $15 per hour. While we commend them for that, the City can and needs to go even further. Due to the state preemption law the City can’t raise the minimum wage for all workers in Portland, but they can raise the wage to $15 for the rest of the workers who are employed both directly and indirectly by the City.

Currently, 15 Now PDX and Portland Jobs with Justice are pushing for the City of Portland to revise it’s Fair Wage Policy. This policy, which was originally won thanks to a campaign initiated by Jobs with Justice, sets the minimum wage for workers such as security guards, custodians, parking attendants and others who work at companies that contract with the City. That wage is currently only $10.38 per hour, which is not enough to survive in our city. Our city council needs to take the next step in providing a living

Florida, like the rest of the South, is going to be a tough nut to crack. Like much of the South, it is a right-to-work state with a solidly Republican state legislature. Furthermore, Florida statute 218.077(2) forbids local jurisdictions from passing any minimum wage or other employee benefits in excess of those mandated by state or federal law.

From the git-go, we were told that the cause of the $15/hour minimum wage was doomed. 218.077(2) trumped everything, and that was that. We could support the efforts of SEIU’s Fight for 15 to organize fast-food workers in Tampa, or support city workers in St. Petersburg in their demand for a $15 minimum for themselves. But flying in the face of all reason, we determined that we would challenge 218.077(2) straight-on.

However, that didn’t mean just going full kamikaze. We had discussions. A statewide ballot initiative was considered and rejected. For instance, organizers for this year’s statewide Medical Marijuana initiative had turned in over 1.1 million signatures to qualify it for the state ballot, but we had no base for such a massive endeavor. So how to throw down the gauntlet in a manner commensurate with our modest means?

It’s in the Constitution

We were inspired by Article X, Section 24(a) of the Florida state constitution, which stated:

“(a) PUBLIC POLICY. All working Floridians are entitled to be paid a minimum wage that is sufficient to provide a decent and healthy life for them and their families, that protects their employers from unfair low-wage competition, and that does not force them to rely on taxpayer-funded public services in order to avoid economic hardship”

We put in hours studying the relevant laws, determined that 218.077(2) was unconstitutional, and then drafted a resolution for the 8-member St. Petersburg City Council:

“NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the City Council of the City of St. Petersburg, that the Council calls for the Legislature of the State of Florida to repeal Statute 218.077(2), and immediately upon such repeal, the Council will move to set a minimum wage of $15 an hour for all workers without exception and without delay in implementation.”

We call it the Maria Fernandes Resolution, named after the woman who died from gas fumes while sleeping in her car.

Note that it makes two points. There is of course the call for 15. But essential to actually winning 15, and hopefully compelling, in terms of putting pressure on liberal Councilmembers was the bourgeois-democratic argument for Home Rule and the city’s right to set its own minimum.

An organizer for the Florida Public Services Union (FPSU) gave us a copy of their media list. We wrote a press release announcing a September 27 press conference on the steps of City Hall, and sent it to every outlet around the state. We followed up with phone calls to individual reporters and newsrooms. At the conference itself, five of us from 15 Now and two reporters showed up, one from an area alternative newspaper called Creative Loafing, and the other from the Tampa Bay Times, the major newspaper in the area. Rose Roby and I both spoke. “15 Now challenges City Hall (1)” and “15 Now Challenges City Hall (2).” As I stated on the City Hall steps, “We’re not calling on the St. Petersburg City Council, as it said in the Declaration of Independence, to risk their lives, or even their fortunes. We’re not asking them, not yet, anyway, to spend any money, meaning our own tax money. But we are wondering about their sacred honor.”

Result: two friendly newspaper articles and three radio interviews.

And into the streets

Next step: We drew up a petition, then we hit the streets. Since it was a petition of support and not a ballot initiative, validity rates were not an issue. The purpose was not just to impress the City Council. It was to tell the community that we wanted them — the people nobody listened to — to have a voice. Folks would say “I’m not registered.” Doesn’t matter. Sign it. “I’m not a citizen.” 15 is for everybody. Sign. “I’m retired.” Sign it for your children. “I’m on work release.” Doesn’t matter. You can be part of this movement. They sign. The responses, particularly in the Black community, drove us even harder.

With a couple hundred signatures under our belt, we contacted individual City Councilmembers and asked to meet with them. Four of them (Dudley, Nurse, Gerdes and Kornell) agreed to meet. One was downright negative, other responses ranged from cautious, to skeptical, to supporting us. Repeal of 218.077(2) was popular, but “move to set a minimum wage of $15” was dicier.

We were taken seriously. The meetings gave us ammunition on the street, about our professionalism, about our at least being heard. It has put us on the map.

We are beginning to develop political relationships. FPSU has been invaluable with advice and encouragement, and we hope for an endorsement. SEIU sees us adding pressure on the city in their contract negotiations.

For late November, we are looking forward to directly addressing the City Council at its open mike session, with more media outreach, and a possible rally on the City Hall steps. By the end of the year, we should have some 1,500 signatures, and we can insist that the Council take up the legislation.

What if they turn it down completely? Tough question. Even tougher question, what if they do pass it? Myriad open questions.

One way to look at it is that if it passes, we tout our victory and use it to leverage whatever our next move would be. If it doesn’t pass, it gives us more time to keep petitioning and building our base for future challenges. Win-win. What is certain is that we need to bust our asses in the next few months while our momentum builds. We have to create a more developed infrastructure off our petitioning base.

And we can now ask, to what do we owe our limited success? It is indeed a “success,” but we cannot forget the “limited” aspect of the equation. We haven’t achieved it because we are so strong. We are still a handful. It’s not that we are so devilishly clever. Our moves have been simple. The press conference was invented the day after they invented the clay tablet. Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone back in 1876.

Three factors:

(1) 15 is hot! It got us entrée with the press, the FPSU, and the City Council by dint of the name only.

(2) We took our petition directly into the community. In this era of effortless (and impotent) online petitions and millennial Twitter snake oil, it has set us apart from the rest of what I would call the soft, lazy and demoralized left.

(3) We embrace electoral politics as a primary weapon. By virtue of our relations with the Green Party of Florida (GPFL), which has ballot status in the state, and the fact that 15 Now is the major project of the GPFL’s St. Pete and Orlando locals, that threat is quite credible.

In meeting with City Council members, we point out that four Council districts are in play in 2015:

We also note that in 2016, half the Florida Senate and all 120 Florida House seats in the state legislature are up for grabs, and this year, 15 of 20 seats for State Senate were unopposed, and 69 of the 120 had only one major party contender. When we present 1,500 signatures at year end, we will hardly neglect to point out that, aside from 1,500 is so cleverly 100 x 15, it is also the number required, even with a conservative projected validity rate, to file a candidate for the Florida House. No, the GPFL is hardly a powerhouse, but when we reminded one of the more liberal City Council members that his seat was in play next year, there was a “deer in the headlights” moment followed by a quick “Don’t do that.”

Fighting for 15, and Fight for 15

Fight for 15 is one of the leading organizations in the 15 movement. Are 15 Now and Fight for 15 rivals? Hardly. Relations had perhaps been uneasy between us and SEIU’s Fight for 15 organization, which is active in Tampa, organizing especially among fast food workers. 15 Now Tampa Bay and the newly formed 15 Now Central Florida, out of Orlando, showed up in some force at Fight for 15’s September 4 action in Tampa, where people briefly blocked a major street in Tampa’s Temple Terrace. Lately, Fight for 15 has invited us to support their upcoming December 4 actions, and to be part of a coalition supporting Becky Rubright for Mayor and Joe Redner for City Council in Tampa’s upcoming non-partisan elections in March. Both Rubright and Redner will campaign on the $15 minimum. We intend to ask them to also explicitly raise the issue of 218.077(2), taking our resolution beyond St. Petersburg.

What has now become clear is that Fight for 15 has the “boots on the ground,” fighting for particular workers, while 15 Now, fighting for a 15 minimum wage, seeks a legislative solution, both locally and statewide, 15 for everyone. It creates a proper division of labor where we reinforce each other.

Green for 15

While the GPFL is not terribly strong as electoral parties go, it is the strongest left-wing political party in the state and in the country. Per the 2012 independent election results:

Jill Stein (Green)

469,628

Roseanne Barr (Peace & Freedom)

67,326

Rocky Anderson (Justice)

43,018

Stewart Alexander (Socialist)

4,430

That’s 469,628 for Stein to 114,774 for the rest, 4 to 1.

We hope to use the GPFL’s infrastructure to help spread 15 Now throughout the state. GPFL members in Orlando were instrumental in founding 15 Now Central Florida, which is drafting a local resolution based on St. Pete’s. GPFL locals in Alachua County (Gainesville) and Miami are moving towards taking up 15 Now, and Didier Ortiz, Green Party candidate for City Commission District 3, has been campaigning for 15 in Fort Lauderdale.

We know that Florida is going to be a very tough nut to crack. The state legislature is overwhelmingly reactionary Republican, the Democratic Party a pathetic shell, despite the fact that Obama won the state in 2008 and 2012. The disparity between the political superstructure and the progressive base is potentially explosive.

Low-hanging fruit

So the state legislature is a ripe target around the issue of repealing 218.077(2), particularly the Florida House where only some 1,200 valid signatures are required to qualify a candidate for 2016. As mentioned, this year, 69 of the 120 House seats are going unchallenged by one or the other major party, and the GPFL’s ballot status creates the opportunity to make 218.077(2) a household word around the state.

Democratic and Republican honchos seem to have reached a gentleman’s agreement to save money and effort by divvying up over half the state in advance. And once a party lets itself so atrophy, it’s not so easy to get back In the saddle should an independent threat arise.

As the table below shows, this pattern is repeated throughout the South.

state

unopposed

total seats

pct

Florida Senate:

15

20

75.0%

Florida House:

69

120

57.5%

Alabama Senate:

18

35

51.4%

Alabama House:

65

105

61.9%

Arkansas Senate:

15

18

83.3%

Arkansas House:

29

37

78.4%

Georgia Senate:

41

56

73.2%

Georgia House:

147

180

81.7%

Louisiana Senate:

18

39

46.2%

Louisiana House:

41

105

39.0%

Mississippi Senate:

19

52

36.5%

Mississippi House:

60

122

49.2%

North Carolina Senate:

21

50

42.0%

North Carolina House:

61

120

50.8%

Oklahoma Senate:

13

25

52.0%

Oklahoma House:

66

101

65.3%

South Carolina Senate:

31

46

67.4%

South Carolina House:

93

124

75.0%

Texas Senate:

7

15

46.7%

Texas House:

105

150

70.0%

totals

934

1,520

61.4%

Thus, in many districts, an energetic independent left party of whatever stripe has the potential within the decade to become the “other” party in district after district. Keep in mind that, while these states are under the thumb of the Republicans, their people are desperately poor. 15 Now can be the issue that allows left parties like the Green Party to mobilize the kind of electoral base among poor and working people that they currently lack, using appropriate versions of the St. Pete model discussed above.

Nixon had his “Southern Strategy.” We have ours.

— submitted by Jeff Roby
15 Now Tampa Bay Outreach Coordinator
Secretary of the St. Pete local of the GPFL